Category: Solomon Says

Christians of every age and every circumstance need to know the entire Bible. And the world always needs the full Scriptures. That’s a given.

But Proverbs could be especially useful to the developed world in the twenty-first century. Here are four reasons why: Continue reading “4 Reasons Our Age Needs Proverbs”

Last week, my friend Uri Brito talked to me about Proverbs and why I hope to promote Proverbs to a contemporary audience. Here it is: Continue reading “The Kuyperian.com Interview with SolomonSays.net”

Dr. Alastair Roberts is an adjunct Senior Fellow at the Theopolis Institute. Roberts earned his PhD from Durham University, is co-author of the recent Echoes of Exodus, and will publish Heirs Together next year (Crossway).

One of the enduring puzzles of human life is that a good start is better than a bad one… and yet a good start isn’t enough to finish well.

This is obvious in mundane circumstances. A person starts a well-planned health regimen (whether gym or diet or both) and makes great progress in a year. Yet he fails to continue and, four years later, the effects of the change have dissipated. You can’t tell that he ever made himself healthier. Someone else however, because he had many distractions or maybe some misinformation about how to proceed, showed much less progress that first year, and yet stuck with it, and is much healthier or stronger or a better runner five years later.

Every good thing has to begin but not every good beginning ends up becoming a good thing for the long term. Continue reading “Getting Better Takes Time & Doing Well Requires Endurance”

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor. Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth. In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death (Proverbs 12:24-28).

I chose this passage for one reason: it mentioned sloth twice in close proximity.

Like many other things, remarks (or riddles) about sloth are scattered throughout Proverbs in no seeming order.

Is there a method to Solomon’s apparent madness? Continue reading “Understanding Proverbs by Thinking about Sloth”

In line with what I quoted earlier from Charles Spurgeon, consider this quotation from the Christian philosopher Cornelius Van Til:

The Kingdom of God as Man’s Summum Bonum

We need all this background in order to understand what is meant by saying that the kingdom of God is man’s summum bonum. By this term kingdom of God we mean the realized program of God for man. We would think of man as (a) adopting for himself this program of God as his own ideal and as (b) setting and keeping his powers in motion in order to reach that goal that has been set for him and that he has set for himself. We propose then briefly to look at this program which God has set for man and which man should have set for himself.

The most important aspect of this program is surely that man should realize himself as God’s vicegerent in history. Man was created God’s vicegerent and he must realize himself as God’s vicegerent. There is no contradiction between these two statements. Man was created a character and yet had to make himself ever more of a character. So we may say that man was created a king in order that he might become more of a king than he was. We may see what this means first in the individual, and secondly, for society.

Continue reading “Cornelius Van Til on Self-Realization”

Proverbs was written for everyone, but it is directed towards an ideal reader. Who is the ideal reader? An older boy or a young man—someone near the threshold of adulthood.

While everyone can and should read Proverbs to learn about living in the world, the book is especially aimed at teaching boys on how to be a man.

I know it’s problematic comparing Jordan Peterson to Solomon, but it is still worth doing. “Grow up and be useful” does summarize a major thrust of Proverbs. And the popularity of Jordan Peterson’s lectures and book demonstrates why more Proverbs may be especially useful at this time in our culture.

Recently The Atlantic published a stellar article by Caitlin Flanagan, one of their contributing editors, entitled, “Why the Left Is So Afraid of Jordan Peterson.” She begins: Continue reading “Solomon on How to Be a Man: The Opportunity We Have”

Proverbs seems aimed at a young man–someone who is at least an adolescent since he is capable of being sexually tempted. He may be old enough to be a young married man. After all, one of Solomon’s exhortations is to be satisfied with one’s young wife (Proverbs 5:18-19).

I don’t know at what age men got married in Israel in Solomon’s day, but his wisdom seems aimed at males ranging from adolescence to early marriage. Continue reading “Solomon on Internet Porn”

Every workman knows the necessity of keeping his tools in a good state of repair, for “if the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength.” If the workman lose the edge from his adz, he knows that there will be a greater draught upon his energies, or his work will be badly done. […]

We are, in a certain sense, our own tools, and therefore must keep ourselves in order. If I want to preach the gospel, I can only use my own voice; therefore I must train my vocal powers. I can only think with my own brains, and feel with my own heart, and therefore I must educate my intellectual and emotional faculties. I can only weep and agonize for souls in my own renewed nature, therefore must I watchfully maintain the tenderness which was in Christ Jesus. It will be in vain for me to stock my library, or organize societies, or project schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself; for books, and agencies, and systems, are only remotely the instruments of my holy calling; my own spirit, soul, and body, are my nearest machinery for sacred service; my spiritual faculties, and my inner life, are my battle ax and weapons of war.

A common, simplistic, and erroneous interpretation of Proverbs is that you will have a life free from pain, want, and worry if you follow its instructions.

No.

If you read Proverbs you should keep in mind four basic temptations that a person can face: Continue reading “The Four Trials of Life in Proverbs”